The Saint Joseph's men's basketball team (8-8; 2-3 A-10) will head to Massachusetts (11-7; 1-4) for the first of two meetings on Wednesday, January 18. Game time at the Mullins Center is 7 p.m.

The contest will be televised by the American Sports Network and its affiliates, with the broadcast being seen in Philadelphia on The Comcast Network. Among the outlets that will be televising the game are: SportsNet NY; CSN Mid-Atlantic and NESN. To find the game in your area, go to AmericanSportsNet.com.

GAME NOTES• Saint Joseph’s trimmed an 18-point deficit to one against Richmond, but couldn’t get over the hump, losing 70-66. Lamarr Kimble had 17 points, Nick Robinson scored a season-high 14 and Charlie Brown had 13. • James Demery leads the Hawks in scoring in Atlantic 10 games with a 14.8 average, followed by Lamarr Kimble with 13.6 points per game. • The current two-game losing streak marks the first time that SJU has lost consecutive games since a four-game losing streak in November. However the last two losses have been by a combined margin of 12 points. • SJU plays its final non-conference game of the year on Saturday in the Big 5 matchup witih Penn. The Hawks are the designated home team for the game at the Palestra.• UMass is led in scoring by Donte Clark, with 14.1 points per game. The Minutemen are coming off a 79-77 loss at Rhode Island, but defeated Dayton at home on Jan. 11 for their first league win.

FALLING SHORT: The Hawks fell behind late in the first half vs. Richmond as the Spiders took a 41-28 halftime lead. And after Richmond increased it to 18 points early in the second half, the Hawks made a comeback to come within 65-64 late in the second half. But SJU couldn’t convert on the final few possessions and suffered the 70-66 loss. Coach Phil Martelli didn’t consider it as a moral victory, however, saying, “They didn't hear from me that they did a good job. I don't listen to it. I don't buy it. There are things that we can take out of that (comeback), but only if we're better on Monday. Seventeen turnovers. There's nothing about 'Nice effort.'"

HE’S BACK: James Demery has been a welcome return to the court after missing 10 games with an injury. The junior had nine points, four rebuonds and four assists off the bench in his return to action against GW and followed that with 17 points and eight rebounds at Rhode Island. Demery returned to the starting lineup at Fordham and responded with a career-high 27 points to go along with six rebounds, followed by a 16-point, six-rebound effort vs. George Mason. Demery was a starter as a freshman and was the sixth man for the 2016 A-10 champion team, averaging 8.1 points per game. His return also gives SJU’s defense a boost as he has been regarded as the team’s best defender.

DEVASTATING BLOW: Junior Shavar Newkirk will miss the rest of the season after suffering a torn ACL in his left knee in the win over GW (Dec. 30) and will undergo surgery. Newkirk keyed the Hawks’ comeback from 12 points down in the first half, and was about to score his sixth straight point on a fast break, when he went down with the non-contact injury. He finished the game with 10 points and SJU won, 68-63. Newkirk was the Hawks’ leading scorer, averaging 20.3 points per game through 12 games. He scored 20-plus points in all but four games this season, reaching a new career-high of 28 points. Newkirk topped the Hawks in free-throw percentage (.847) and averaged 3.5 assists per game, while hitting 46.6 percent of his field goal attempts. His scoring average was 13 points more than last season’s (8.0). “This is certainly disappointing to all of us in the Saint Joseph’s basketball program. Our thoughts and concern go out to Shavar and his family,” said Phil Martelli. “We're fully supportive of him, academically and socially, and as he makes his return to the basketball court, bigger, stronger and better than ever. His teammates have expressed the same level of support.”

START IT UP: Sophomore Chris Clover has started four consecutive games in place of Shavar Newkirk. James Demery returned to the starting lineup at Fordham for Nick Robinson, who replaced Demery while he was sidelined. Here’s a rundown of the Hawks’ starting lineups this season with the number of games (current starting lineup in bold): • Kimble, Newkirk, Brown, Demery, Lodge - 1 game • Kimble, Newkirk, Brown, Robinson, Lodge - 11 games • Kimble, Clover, Brown, Robinson, Lodge - 1 game • Kimble, Clover, Brown, Demery, Lodge - 3 games

THE GOOD GUY: Phil Martelli has been named the recipient of this year’s “Good Guy Award” from the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association, which will be presented at the 113th annual PSWA banquet on Feb. 3 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill. Martelli, always helpful and accessible to the media in good times and bad, capped off a strong 2015-16 season by storming through the Atlantic 10 Tournament, to win the Hawks' second title in three years and earn an eighth seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Hawks then defeated No. 9 Cincinnati for their first NCAA Tournament win since 2004 before bowing to Oregon in the second round, finishing at a stellar 28-8. The conference title was the second in the last three years for Martelli, who is also a four-time A-10 Coach of the Year.

INJURY BUG: The Hawks are certainly jinxed with significant injuries this year, with the latest setback being Shavar Newkirk’s torn ACL. The streak of bad luck began this summer when sophomore Pierfrancesco Oliva, a starter in 2015-16, was diagnosed with a knee condition that is causing him to miss the year. James Demery suffered a stress fracture in the first game on Nov. 12 that forced him to miss 10 games. Freshman Lorenzo Edwards played in only one game this year and will undergo shoulder surgery which will sideline him for the rest of the year.

WORKING OVERTIME: Lamarr Kimble has played a lot of minutes already this year and now even more after Shavar Newkirk’s injury. Prior to Newkirk being sidelined, the guards were seeing career-high numbers in minutes played, with Kimble averaging 35.5 and Newkirk at 35.1. Kimble is now playing 36.4 minutes per game, the second most in the Atlantic 10, and 16th most in the nation. Kimble has played all 40 minutes in the last two games.

TAKING SHOTS: Lamarr Kimble is taking on a lot of responsibility this year, and especially after Shavar Newkirk’s injury. The point guard is averaging 14.5 field goal attempts per game, and took a season-high of 18 shots in the George Mason game.

LOOKING AHEAD: Saint Joseph’s will play its final non-conference game of the year on Jan. 21 when it takes on Penn at The Palestra. The Hawks resume A-10 play on Jan. 24 at St. Bonaventure